ElMffii 


IC-NRLF 


THE 


FUTURE  INDIAN 


A  BRIEF  TREATISE 


ON   THE    INDIAN  QUESTION 


BY 


S.  C.  GILMAN 

\  I 


INDIANAPOLIS : 

CARLON  &  HOLLENBECK,  PRINTERS. 
1891 


COPYRIGHT  BY 

S.  C.   GILMAN 

1891 


INTRODUCTION. 

NOTHER  "  Indian  outbreak,"  not 
unattended  with  destruction  to  hu 
man  life,  has  occurred  in  the  West — this 
time  among  the  Sioux.  But  happily, 
through  a  wise  and  conservative  policy, 
the  troubles  were  brought  speedily  to  an 
end,  and  a  prolonged  Indian  war  has  been 
averted.  During  these  troubles,  charges  of 
mismanagement  and  of  injustice  to  the  In 
dians  came  from  sources  that  must  be  re 
spected.  Men  do  not  usually  go  to  war 
without  some  good  reason.  These  In 
dians  had  some  cause  for  their  action,  as 
has  been  clearly  shown  during  the  last 
four  months.  And  now  this  question 
is  before  us:  What  are  we  going  to  do 
about  it?  Are  there  simply  to  be  a  series 
of  receptions  to  the  representatives  of  a 
people  whom  a  month  ago  we  denounced 

M126554 


4  THE  FUTURE  INDIAN. 

as  treacherous  vagabonds  ?  Will  we  work 
ourselves  into  a  furore  for  the  time  being, 
over  these  delegates  from  Pine  Ridge,  and 
then  forget  all  about  them,  after  they  have 
gone  away?  Are  there  to  be  a  few  more 
pledges  made  that,  if  adhered  to  at  all,  will 
be  done  so  in  a  half-hearted  way  ? 

What  was  the  lesson  conveyed  by  this 
last  Indian  trouble? 

This  trouble  differed  from  the  previous 
ones  in  that  it  possessed  a  religious  as 
pect.  It  is  significant  that  when  \despair 
comes  to  a  man — when  he  is  completely  lost, 
and  all  hope  and  earthly  help  is  gone- 
he  will  turn  to  some  higher  and  immortal 
power  to  save  him.  So  it  was  with  the  In 
dians.  They  did  not  know  that  that  power 
had  already  come.  True,  missionaries  had 
told  them  of  a  Messiah  that  had  come  to 
save  all  mankind,  and  some  had  believed. 
But  many,  in  their  simplicity,  could  not 
distinguish  between  the  false  and  the  true, 
and  when  civilization  came  and  white  men 
mistreated  them,  and  told  them  lies — all 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN.  5 

lies— they  spurned  thereligion  the  white  man 
brought  and  wanted  none  of  his  civiliza 
tion.  They  had  never  been  offered  our  best 
civilization.  The  only  real  happiness  they 
had  ever  known  had  been  in  the  wild,  free 
life  of  the  past.  They  saw  that  could  never 
be  again.  Their  lands  were  gone,  their 
game  was  gone,  and  the  civilization  they 
had  learned  to  hate  was  every  day  creeping 
in  upon  them.  In  their  despair  they  turned 
to  an  immortal  power  to  save  them.  One 
day,  one  of  their  number  who  been  away  in 
the  Northwest,  came  back  and  told  them  of 
a  Messiah,  whom  he  had  seen  and  talked 
with,  who  was  to  take  them  all  out  of  their 
troubles,  who  was  to  destroy  the  white  peo 
ple,  and  restore  to  the  Indians  not  only 
their  lands  and  abundant  game,  but  their 
dead.  No  doubt  there  were  some  who  took 
advantage  of  the  craze  that  followed,  and 
worked  the  Indians  up  to  a  frenzy  that 
would  bring  on  a  war.  But  the  most  of 
them  did  believe  the  story  and  were  sin 
cere,  and  when  actual  warfare  did  come 


6  THE   FUTUKE  INDIAN. 

they  faced  death  as  only  mad  men  would, 
firmly  believing  that  the  sacred  robes  they 
wore  would  shield  their  bodies  from  the 
soldiers'  bullets.  We  al!  know  the  story  of 
this  whole  affair.  How  the  Indians  inagu- 
rated  the  strange  ghost  dance.  How  they 
practiced  it,  until  the  white  people  became 
suspicious  and  alarmed.  How  an  attempt  was 
made  to  stop  it,  which  only  made  the  In 
dians  more  earnest  than  ever.  How  the 
soldiers  then  came,  and  how  the  Indians  did 
not  abandon  the  cause  until  their  own  blood 
had  been  shed  and  they  began  to  realize 
the  folly  of  it  all. 

The  real  Messiah,  I  have  said,  had  come. 
At  least  that  is  what  we  believe.  That  is 
what  we  love  to  preach  and  sing  about  and 
read.  We  commemorate  His  birth  in  a 
beautiful  manner  every  Christmas  time. 
Why,  then,  had  He  not  come  to  the  Indians 
as  He  had  to  us?  Was  it  left  for  us  to 
tell  them  about  Him?  If  so,  why  have  we 
not  done  it  in  a  more  general  way  ? 

Turning  over  in   my   mind   this  Indian 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN.  7 

question,  with  its  many  phases,  I  have 
been  prompted  to  write  the  following  brief 
treatise  on  the  subject,  and  while  it  may 
not  sparkle,  perhaps,  with  "  deep,  heavy 
argument,"  I  trust  there  will  be  found 
therein  some  thought  expressed — some 
truth  clearly  defined — that  will  give  us  all 
a  better  consciousness  of  our  individual  re 
sponsibility  in  this  matter. 

THE  WRITER. 
INDIANAPOLIS,  IND.,  Feb.  5,  1891. 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN. 


SOME  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  BAD  INDIAN. 

HE  WRITER  does  not  pretend  to  be 
"^  an  authority  on  Indian  matters,  and 
knows  very  little  about  Indian  Bureaus, 
Indian  Commissions,  and  associations  for  or 
against  the  Indian.  Nevertheless,  I  pro 
pose  to  discuss  the  Indian  question,  treat 
ing  it  as  the  average  person  might  who  has 
lived  for  a  time  in  the  neighborhood  of 
these  savage  people,  where  one  is  liable  to 
form  a  few  simple  ideas  on  the  subject.  But 
in  the  first  place,  let  us  glance  for  a  moment 
at  the  " bad  Indian.''  In  the  summer  of 
1886  I  resided  in  Gordon,  Nebraska,  a  set 
tlement  which  sprung  up  on  the  Fremont, 
Elkhorn  and  Missouri  Valley  Railroad  when 
that  line  pushed  into  the  northwestern  part 
of  the  State  and  the  Black  Hills.  Owing  to 


10  THE  FUTURE    INDIAN. 

its  close  position  to  the  Pine  Ridge  Indian 
agency  the  Government  established  an  In 
dian  freight  depot  at  that  point,  afterwards 
moving  it  to  Rushville.  Gordon  soon  be 
came  a  favorite  lounging  place  for  many  of 
the  Indians,  and  seldom  a  day  went  by 
when  some  of  them  were  not  in  town  with 
their  squaws  and  "  pappooses.''  I  never 
saw  anything  in  these  Indians  of  an  inspir 
ing  nature.  Excepting  the  freight  carriers, 
they  did  not  represent  a  very  industrious 
element.  In  fact,  they  were  not  of  the  pro 
gressive  ones,  who  generally  stay  more  at 
home  and  take  care  of  their  lands  and 
ponies.  They  belonged  to  the  bad  Indian 
class — the  bad  Indian,  as  I  saw  him,  for 
those  were  "  weak,  piping  times  of  peace," 
and  the  ghost  dance  was  not  yet  on  to  rouse 
the  warrior  spirit  sleeping  within  him. 
Lazy,  dissolute  fellows,  they  would  shroud 
themselves  in  a  blanket  on  a  hot  day,  and 
lean  against  the  side  of  a  building,  and 
stand  motionless  as  a  statue  for  hours,  and 
then  overcome  by  so  laborious  an  under- 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN.  11 

taking  would  arable  off  toward  their  tepees, 
and  lay  down  on  the  prairie,  to  soon  drop 
into  a  sweet,  peaceful  slumber.  Meanwhile, 
the  squaws  would  be  running  around  doing 
all  the  work  necessary. 

Even  the  best  of  the  Indians  are  disposed 
to  shift  all  the  hard  work  on  the  squaws, 
and  the  freight  carrier  especially  finds  her 
a  help-meet,  indeed,  in  his  business.  Once  I 
saw  a  squaw  coining  up  the  street,  bent 
almost  to  the  ground,  with  a  heavy  wooden 
bedstead  on  her  back,  while  her  liege  lord 
marched  on  in  advance  with  all  the  dignity 
of  a  general  whose  duty  it  was  to  direct  but 
not  take  active  part  in  the  campaign  of 
work. 

One  day  a  band  of  Indians  came  over 
from  the  agency  and  gave  an  Omaha  dance. 
It  was  a  novel  exhibition,  and  the  people 
of  the  town  raised  a  collection  of  nearly  a 
hundred  dollars  for  the  performers.  The 
Indians  departed  happy  as  kings  are  sup 
posed  to  be,  but  a  week  had  hardly  passed 
when  they  again  put  in  an  appearance,  ready 


12  THE  FUTURE    INDIAN. 

to  give  another  performace,  providing  they 
should  be  as  liberally  rewarded  as  on  the 
first  occasion. 

There  was  one  old  fellow,  who  cast  his 
fortunes  with  the  people  of  Gordon,  named 
Thunder  Hawk,  an  ex-warrior.  He  be 
longed  properly  at  the  Rosebud  agency, 
where  he  was  implicated  in  some  way  with 
the  murder  of  Spotted  Tail,  and  at  his  trial 
was  banished  from  his  own  tribe  and  sent 
to  Pine  Ridge.  An  inveterate  and  shrewd 
gambler,  he  won  from  the  Pine  Ridge  In 
dians  their  ponies  and  blankets  so  com 
pletely  that  they  arose  in  a  body  and  drove 
him  away  from  the  reservation.  So  he 
came  to  Gordon,  where  he  remained  for  a 
long  time,  haunting  the  saloons  and  gam 
bling  resorts,  and  many  a  time  fleecing 
some  drummer  or  traveling  man  who  mis 
took  him  for  an  innocent  and  endeavored 
to  show  him  how  to  play  pool  and  poker. 

In  the  obtaining  of  rations,  the  bad  In 
dian,  it  seems,  manages  to  even  up  some 
times  with  the  Indian  agent  for  the  decep- 


THE   FUTURE  IN1HAN.  13 

tion  and  injustice  which  we  are  told  that 
official  is  guilty  of,  and  when  a  census  is 
taken  of  the  Indians  it  is  not  uncommon, 
I  am  informed,  for  many  to  loan  their  chil 
dren  to  each  other,  and  thus  have  their 
families  rated  much  higher  than  they  really 
are. 

Well,  perhaps  the  reader  has  been  shown 
enough  of  the  bad  traits  of  the  Indian.  I 
allude  to  them  here,  because  when  we  take 
up  the  Indian  question,  we  ought  not  to 
conceal  anything.  The  best  act  we  can  do 
the  Indians  is  to  expose  and  condemn 
that  which  is  subtle  and  deceptive  in  their 
nature,  and  point  out  and  persude  them  to 
abandon  all  that  is  lamentable,  weak  and 
foolish.  But  in  the  work  of  reformation, 
we  should  not  judge  the  whole  race  by  the 
bad  Indian  or  the  hopeless  cases.  As  well 
might  we  apply  the  same  principal  to  our 
selves,  where  we  have  only  to  go  down 
into  the  slums  in  our  midst  to  find  men 
sunk  lower  than  the  brutes — men  whose 
depravity  would  put  to  blush  the  meanest 


14  THE    FUTURE  INDIAN. 

Indian  that  ever  lived.  We  shudder  at  the 
atrocities  which  an  Indian  will  commit,  and 
yet  every  day  we  read  in  the  newspapers 
of  crimes  by  civilized  man  just  as  fiendish 
and  brutal.  The  Indian,  of  course,  should 
come  out  into  the  clear  light  of  Knowledge 
and  Wisdom,  into  that  state  unclouded  by 
ignorance  and  superstition,  into  that  man 
hood  possessing  moral  responsibility  and  a 
desire  for  all  that  is  high  and  noble;  but 
it  will  be  with  him  then,  as  it  has  always 
been  with  us,  and  he  will  fall  and  suffer,  as 
we  have  fallen  and  suffered,  whenever  he 
accepts  the  Wrong  in  preference  to  the 
Right. 

INDIANS  AS  SOLDIERS. 

"  The  supreme  test  of  any  scheme  for 
benefiting  humanity,"  wrote  General  Booth 
in  Darkest  England,  u  lies  in  the  answer  to 
the  question,  What  does  it  make  of  the  in 
dividual  ?  Does  it  quicken  his  conscience, 
does  it  soften  his  heart,  does  it  enlighten 
his  mind,  does  it,  in  short,  make  more  of 
a  true  man  of  him,  because  only  by  such  in- 


THE    FUTURE  INDIAN.  15 

fluences,  can  he  be  enabled  to  lead  a  human 
life?" 

General  Booth  had  in  mind  the  reclaim 
ing  of  England's  paupers  and  lost  human 
beings,  when  he  wrote  the  above  lines,  but 
the  question  applies  to  all  movements  in 
behalf  of  humanity. 

Several  seemingly  good  reasons  have  been 
advanced  for  putting  the  Indians  under 
military  control,  but  I  imagine  the  majority 
of  those  who  favor  this  do  so  because  they 
welcome  a  change  of  any  kind  that  promises 
to  take  the  Indians  out  of  their  present  con 
dition,  and  more  so  because  a  military  man 
seems  to  understand  the  Indian's  nature 
better  than  any  other  government  official. 
But  would  it  be  the  best  policy  ?  It  is 
claimed  that  underneath  military  discipline 
the  Indian  could  soon  be  trained  into  a  good 
soldier  and  thus  become  serviceable  to  the 
government,  upon  which  he  is  now  made 
a  dependent.  Somehow,  it  seems  to  me 
that — to  speak  in  the  vulgar  parlance  of  the 
street  gammon — "we're  play  in'  it  kind  a 


16  THE  FUTURE  INDIAN. 

low ';  on  the  Indian  when  we  do  this. 
Supposing  he  does  become  a  good  soldier, 
and  to  some  extent  self  sustaining,  would 
the  conditions  thus  thrown  around  him  tend 
to  bring  him  up  to  the  best  type  of  man 
hood  ?  I  do  not  mean  to  be-little  the  sol 
dier  at  all.  We  all  love  the  soldier — the 
exemplar  of  honor  and  bravery,  the  man 
who  will  fight  and  give  up  his  life  in  the 
discharge  of  duty.  There  are  many  good- 
hearted,  clever  men  in  the  army, — able  ones, 
too,  who  might  easily  become  prominent 
among  citizens  were  it  not  for  a  strange  fas 
cination  for  military  life.  But  what  does 
the  regular  service  really  mean  ?  So  far  as 
the  privates  are  concerned,  there  is  not  one 
among  them  who  will  not  tell  you,  if  he 
speaks  out  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart, 
that  it  is  a  dog's  life.  Few  men  have  en 
tered  it,  and  not  regretted  the  act  afterward. 
More  than  one  capable  fellow,  to  whom 
there  happened  to  come  some  dark  period, 
— one  of  failure  and  disappointment  an  den- 
forced  idleness  likely  enough — has  impul- 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN.  17 

sively  joined  the  regular  army,  and  after 
three  or  four  years  of  garrison  and  field  life 
out  west  turns  up  at  home  some  day,  a 
rounded-off,  subdued  being  in  blue  coat 
and  brass  buttons,  shorn  of  the  bright  per 
sonality  that  once  distinguished  him.  In 
the  army  men  lose  their  individuality — too 
often  all  ambition  is  crushed  out  of  them — 
the  natural  and  only  result  where  every 
thing  is  strict  discipline  and  duty.  In  the 
army,  too,  men  become  clannish,  and  main 
tain  a  cold,  almost  cynical,  attitude  toward 
the  rest  of  the  world.  Out  west,  the  soldier 
has  little  love  for  the  citizen,  and  as  for 
the  common  settler,  why,  he  is  looked  upon 
with  contempt,  a  "  land-grub, '' — a  creature 
vastly  inferior  to  the  Indian. 

Let  us  find  something  for  the  Indian  bet 
ter  than  the  soldier's  life. 

What  could  have  been  more  fatal  to  the 

real  Indian  cause  than  the  brilliant  military 

review  held  by  General  Miles  at  Pine  Ridge 

.recently?     I  suppose  the  main  object  was 

to  impress  upon  the  Indians  the  size  and 

2 


18  THE  FUTURE  INDIAN. 

strength  of  the  troops,  although  they  had 
just  learned  the  soldiers'  power  and  the 
folly  of  attacking  them.  But  imagine  what 
the  feelings  of  those  savage  warriors  must 
have  been  when  they  looked  down  upon 
the  spectacle  from  the  bleak  eminence  upon 
which  they  had  gathered.  They  saw  only 
the  outward  show — the  dazzling  display. 
To  the  most  of  them,  especially  the  younger 
element,  it  was  a  glittering  reality,  and  there 
could  have  been  only  one  lasting  effect  pro 
duced — a  desire  for  such  a  life — a  mad  pas 
sion  to  be  a  soldier. 

A  standing  army  in  the  west,  while  neces 
sary  for  the  restoring  of  peace  in  time  of 
trouble  and  rebellion,  has  all  along,  in  my 
opinion,  retarded  the  Indians  in  their  in 
dustrial  progress.  Its  appearance  upon  any 
little  scare  or  trouble  has  dismayed  the  con 
servative  ones,  while  its  uniform  and  glitter, 
its  apparent  life  of  ease,  has  aroused  the 
admiration  and  envy  of  the  others  and  made 
them  discontented  in  any  other  service.  If 
we  place  the  Indians  under  military  control 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN.  19 

for  the  purpose  of  making  some  soldiers 
and  some  farmers,  let  us  be  careful  that 
we  do  not  check  them  entirely  in  their 
industrial  advancement.  For  the  best  of 
them,  the  young  and  able-bodied,  the  bone 
and  sinew  of  the  nation,  the  very  ones 
needed  to  carry  on  the  home  life,  would  be 
taken  into  the  service,  where,  if  they  were 
dealt  with  equitably  and  paid  as  are  the 
other  soldiers,  there  would  be  no  neces 
sity  for  them  at  least  to  do  any  other 
work.  If,  however,  the  plan  applies  only 
to  the  bad  element,  the  hostiles,  and  these 
are  the  ones  to  be  converted  into  loyal  sol 
diers,  then  the  matter  presents  itself  to  me 
in  this  light :  The  principal  reason  for  an 
army  out  west  has  been  to  keep  this  ele 
ment  in  subjection.  Make  an  army  out  of 
them,  and  nothing  would  remain  for  them 
to  do,  excepting  the  ordinary  work  which  a 
certain  number  of  well-trained  police  could 
attend  to.  Like  the  Dutch  corporal  in  the 
late  war,  the  hostile  would  be  made  a  guard 
over  himself — made  the  victim  of  a  huo-e 


20  THE  FUTURE    INDIAN. 

joke.  All  that  he  would  have  to  do  would 
be  to  "  spy  his  shadow  in  the  sun,"  pose  be 
fore  the  dusky  maiden,  and  once  in  a  while 
shoot  down  an  imaginary  foe. 

Well,  some  reader  here  exclaims,  this 
argument  is  growing  ridiculous.  It  implies 
that  an  army  is  a  needless,  demoralizing 
thing,  and  the  only  reason  for  stationing 
one  on  the  frontier  is  to  keep  peace  among 
the  Indians;  any  one  ought  to  know  that 
it  would  be  folly  to  leave  the  frontier  ex 
posed  and  open  to  invasion — a  standing 
army  should  be  there  at  all  times.  But, 
dear  reader,  let  me  remind  you  that  Amer 
ica  is  not  divided  into  numerous  govern 
ments —  like  Europe — aggressive,  selfish, 
always  scheming  to  enlarge  their  bounda 
ries.  The  United  States  is  not  surrounded  by 
powerful  nations,  ready  at  any  time  to  in 
vade  and  seize  a  portion  of  our  domain ; 
but  is  one  mighty  Republic,  occupying 
nearly  the  whole  inhabitable  part  of  a 
great  continent.  England  and  Germany 
may  need  a  standing  army  with  which 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN.  21 

to  conquer  "  Darkest  Africa,"  and  to  re 
tain  their  other  vast  possessions;  Russia 
may  need  one  in  order  to  maintain  the  most 
despotic  monarchy  that  ever  existed  ;  every 
little  dynasty  in  Europe  may  need  a  stand 
ing  army  to  keep  its  throne  from  toppling 
over ;  but  peace-loving  America,  with  an 
unselfish,  friendly  policy  toward  all  nations, 
does  not  want  a  standing  army. 

Should  there  be  danger  of  invasion, 
or  of  internal  strife,  we  can  soon  meet  it 
with  a  competent  army.  When  the  South 
ern  Rebellion  broke  out,  what  a  response 
there  was  to  President  Lincoln's  calJ  for 
troops.  Everybody  that  could  fight  en 
listed,  and  even  the  small  boy  wanted  to  go. 
All  differences  were  forgotten.  Old  enemies 
became  friends,  and  marched  away,  side  by 
side,  loving  comrades.  Down  to  the  South 
went  the  people  of  the  North,  and  in  the  war 
that  followed  they  made  a  splendid  fight. 
So  did  their  enemy,  some  their  own  kindred. 
And  when  the  war  ended,  with  right  tri 
umphant,  both  forces,  but  with  broken 


22  THE   FUTURE  INDIAN. 

ranks  where  death  had  come,  returned  to 
their  homes  ready  to  take  up  the  thread  of 
civil  life  that  had  been  so  long  broken. 

Prudence,  I  suppose,  would  dictate  that  a 
United  States  army,  such  as  we  now  have, 
should  be  maintained,  but  there  is  no  ne 
cessity  for  increasing  it  in  this,  a  time  of 
of  peace,  and  in  case  of  war  we  can  call 
into  use  our  National  Service,  increased  and 
strengthened  by  our  patriotic  citizens,  ever 
ready  "  to  respond  to  their  country's  call." 

I  hope  the  time  will  come  when  men  will 
no  longer  go  to  war.  When  armies  will  be 
a  thing  of  the  past.  When  every  govern 
ment  will  be  for  the  people,  by  the  people. 
When  the  world  will  be  at  peace.  When 
there  will  be  no  uncivilized  man.  Such  a 
day  is  no  doubt  far  distant ;  but  its  coming 
is  possible,  and  if  we  would  make  it  so, 
surely  we  ought  not  to  perpetuate  among  a 
savage  race  of  people — whom  we  seek  to 
uplift — institutions  opposed  thereto. 

INDIANS  AS  CITIZENS. 
It  has  been  said  that  the    land  in  the 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN.  23 

Sioux  country  and  the  adjoining  region  is 
not  fit  for  agricultural  purposes,  and  in 
proof  of  this  some  have  stated  that  there 
are  not  as  many  people  on  the  government 
land  there  to-day  as  there  were  ten  years 
ago.  I  do  not  know  as  this  is  the  case,  but 
I  should  not  be  surprised  if  it  were  so  in 
some  sections.  It  was  poverty,  however, 
that  drove  the  people  away,  if  they  have 
come  away,  and  not  because  the  land  could 
not  be  tilled.  With  the  exception  of  the 
sand-spotted  districts — there  is,  by  the  way, 
a  desert  ninety  miles  in  length  between 
Gordon  and  Valentine,  Nebraska,  a  region 
of  sand-hills — some  fine  land  lies  out  there, 
and  particularly  so  in  the  Sioux  reserva 
tion.  Of  course,  in  its  primitive  condition 
it  may  not  look  promising.  Neither  did  the 
prairies  of  Illinois  or  Iowa  forty  years  ago. 
The  country  has  its  set-backs  and  bad  sea 
sons.  So  do  the  best  farming  regions  in  the 
east.  Cyclones  and  blizzards  rage  through 
the  east  now  as  well  as  the  west.  But  of  what 
use  is  land  to  a  man  without  the  means  to 


24  THE  FUTURE  INDIAN. 

till  it?  The  people  who  settle  upon  our 
western  prairies  do  not  as  a  general  thing 
possess  very  much  money.  The  majority  go 
west  for  a  home  because  they  can  find  none 
in  the  east  and  we  never  dream  of  the  toil  and 
hardship  they  undergo  in  the  eifort  to  secure 
it.  The  writer  spent  several  months  in  an 
isolated  region  in  Nebraska  bordering  the 
Sioux  reservation.  The  nearest  railroad 
point  was  Long  Pine,  forty-five  miles  away. 
The  settlers'  houses  were  made  of  sod,  taken 
from  the  prairie,  with  earth  for  the  floor 
and  willow  poles  covered  with  sod  and  dirt 
and  straw  for  the  roof,  a  covering  that  let 
in  a  hundred  little  rivulets  when  a  storm 
came  along.  In  the  winter,  when  the  wind 
and  storms  drove  down  from  the  Northwest, 
it  was  impossible  to  keep  the  snow  from 
beating  in.  All  the  settlers  had  to  live 
upon  was  the  products  of  their  claims  In 
most  cases,  tea  or  coffee  was  a  luxury,  and 
wheat  bread  was  unknown  until  wheat  could* 
be  raised  and  converted  into  flour,  not  a  very 
easy  thing  in  a  country  where  grist  mills 


THE    FUTURE  INDIAN.  25 

are  miles  and  miles  away.  The  land  was 
rich  and  fertile,  and  the  settlers  raised  acres 
and  acres  of  corn  and  wheat.  One  could 
stand  and  look  across  the  prairie  and 
see  nothing  but  fields  of  growing  corn 
stretching  away  for  miles.  But  there  was 
no  market  for  any  of  it  that  year,  and  the 
man  was  in  luck  who  could  sell  a  wagon- 
load  of  corn  for  a  dollar.  The  only  real 
benefit  it  gave  the  settler  was  when  he  used 
it  for  fuel  that  following  winter.  I  have 
not  exaggerated  here  in  the  least,  but  have 
given  the  reader  a  true  picture  of  the  west 
ern  claim-holder's  life.  Under  such  cir 
cumstances,  is  it  any  wonder  that  claims  be 
come  abandoned,  and  the  settling  up  of 
some  regions  is  slow?  The  country  I  refer 
to  was  new  and  the  settlers  needed  money  to 
build  it  up  and  connect  it  with  the  rest  of  the 
world.  They  had  no  money,  and  just  starved 
along  with  the  hope  that  Capital  would  come 
in  some  day  and  give  them  a  start.  If  they 
had  had  the  money  they  could  have  soon 
created  one  of  the  finest  little  farming  dis- 


26  THE  FUTURE  INDIAN. 

tricts  in  the  west.  High  or  low  tariff,  free 
trade  or  protection,  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand,  etc.,  etc.,  "  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  case,"  as  it  stood  then.  They  were 
starting  a  new  enterprise,  and  they  needed  a 
little  hard  cash  to  begin  operations  with. 

Now,  why  can  not  the  Indians,  properly 
encouraged  by  not  only  the  Government, 
but  all  people  as  well — Christians  and  phi 
lanthropists — do  what  those  settlers  might 
have  done? 

Persuade  the  Indians  to  give  up  their  fire 
arms  and  discontinue  their  wild,  repulsive 
dances.  Gradually  place  them  upon  home 
steads  all  over  the  reservation,  with  com 
fortable  cabins  to  live  in  at  first  instead  of 
the  ragged  tepee,  and  provide  them  with 
the  means  to  cultivate  the  land.  Change 
the  trading  posts  into  industrial  centers. 
When  the  Indian  boy  leaves  the  school  let 
there  be  a  workshop  for  him  to  enter,  instead 
of  loitering  in  the  trading  store  or  skylark 
ing  over  the  reservation.  Instead  of  buying 
the  manufactured  article  at  a  large  contract 


THE   FUTURE  INDIAN.  27 

price,  send  the  raw  materials  out  and  let 
the  Indians  be  usefully  employed  and  learn 
to  supply  their  own  demand.  There  is 
nothing  impracticable  about  this.  You 
have  simply  to  put  the  shop  and  factory 
there,  manned  at  first  with  competent  white 
people,  and  commence  with  the  graduates  of 
the  Indian  schools — bright,  active  young 
fellows  that  they  are,  many  no  doubt  eager 
to  undertake  something  of  this  kind.  Or 
another  plan  suggests  itself.  When  General 
Miles  returned  from  Pine  Ridge  to  Chi 
cago,  he  brought  with  him  the  leaders  in 
the  Sioux  outbreak,  and  stationed  them  at 
Fort  Sheridan,  where  an  effort  is  now  be 
ing  made  to  train  them  into  soldiers  and 
to  make  of  them  future  peace-makers  among 
their  people.  It  is  also  proposed  to  bring 
two  hundred  more  east  for  the  same  purpose, 
as  soon  as  possible.  Now,  suppose  the 
object  of  this  movement  had  been  to  make 
citizens  of  these  Indians  instead  of  soldiers. 
Suppose  these  Indians  had  been  put 
through  a  preparatory  training  course,  and 


28  THE  FUTURE  INDIAN. 

then  given  every  opportunity  to  become 
useful  men.  Suppose  we  had  had  in 
stitutions  for  that  purpose  in  the  east, 
to  which  these  Indians  could  have  come 
to  learn  the  various  trades  and  callings,  to 
go  back  some  day  and  help  build  up  their 
nation.  But  let  us  take  the  Indian  school 
graduates,  and  bring  them  east  and  ap 
prentice  them  at  the  different  trades,  and 
we  will  soon  have  the  material  for  our  fac 
tory  at  the  trading  center. 

What  the  Indians  want,  first  of  all,  is 
more  self-government  than  they  now  pos 
sess.  Indians  are  not  all  ignorant,  by  any 
means.  There  are  many  sensible  ones,  who 
know  better  than  any  one  else  what  is  best  for 
their  people.  The  management  of  the  In 
dians  should  be  intrusted  to  a  Governing 
Board — possessing  some  of  the  powers  of  a 
territorial  legislature — composed  of  white 
officials  commissioned  by  the  Government 
and  Indians  taken  from  the  best  and  conserv 
ative  element.  Let  a  body  of  i  his  sort  take 
charge  of  the  work  that  was  sought  to  be 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN.  29 

done  through  Indian  bureaus,  commissions 
and  agencies,  combining  with  it  such  a  policy 
as  is  briefly  outlined  in  the  preceding  lines, 
and  the  coming  age  may  see  the  Sioux 
(e  reservation  "  changed  to  the  Sioux  com 
monwealth,  its  people  neither  savage  wards, 
nor  savage  soldiers,  but  citizens — free  men, 
happy  and  industrious.  The  Indians  can 
not  be  brought  into  this  state  of  existence? 
Well,  I  don't  know  about  that.  Time 
works  out  some  hard  problems  when  men 
soften  their  hearts  toward  each  other ;  and 
it  would  be  a  grand  privilege  for  any  of  us 
to  help  so  lift  up  the  Indian. 

The  Indians'  Messiah  has  come.  Not 
the  one  who  was  to  roll  back  the  earth 
upon  the  white  people,  and  restore  to  the 
Indians  their  dead,  their  lands  and  their 
game;  but  the  Savior  of  Mankind,  the 
one  who  walked  upon  the  earth  long  ago 
and  taught  a  doctrine  that  was  to  bind  all 
people — all  races — into  a  fellowship  of  love 
and  peace.  The  religion  He  taught — Chris- 


30  THE  FUTURE    INDIAN. 

tianity — was  to  give  to  the  world  a  new  life, 
a  civilization  grander  than  the  world  had 
ever  seen  before.  He  commanded  those 
who  heard  Him  to  go  into  every  part  of  the 
world  and  reveal  the  Truth  He  spoke  of, 
and  to  give  the  life  He  spoke  of,  to  all  who 
were  in  darkness.  The  inspiration  this 
man  brought  into  the  world  will  ever  re 
main,  and  to-day  Christianity  is  the  life, 
the  soul,  the  purity,  of  civilization.  As 
this  Christian  civilization  spreads  over  the 
earth,  and  comes  in  contact  with  those  who 
have  never  heard  of  the  Christ,  is  it  going 
to  remember  the  divine  command?  Is  it 
going  to  save?  Is  it  going  to  impart  the 
true  life?  If  not,  then,  indeed,  it  would 
become  an  inconsistent,  distorted  thing — a 
mocker  of  its  own  soul.  Christianity  has 
done  much  for  the  Indian,  but  not  all  that 
it  might.  True,  we  should  not  confound 
the  false  with  the  real,  but  there  has  been 
too  much  indifference,  too  much  selfishness 
on  the  part  of  a  professed  Christian  people, 
too  much  injustice  on  the  part  of  a  Chris- 


THE    FUTURE    INDIAN.  31 

tian  government.  The  wrongs  of  the  past, 
however,  may  be  atoned  for  in  a  measure 
by  rendering  justice  in  the  future,  and  we 
can  best  show  our  love  for  the  dead  In 
dian,  who  has  been  injured,  by  caring  for 
the  ones  who  survive  him.  It  is  the  In 
dian  of  the  present  and  the  future  Indian 
with  whom  we  have  to  deal. 

The  Sioux  have  been  given  more  recog 
nition  than  any  other  body  of  Indians  (in 
return  for  the  lands  ceded  by  them), — 
homes  have  been  built  for  many  of  the  peo 
ple,  and  schools  for  their  children,  while  an 
enormous  amount  of  money  is  expended  an 
nually  in  providing  them  with  food  and 
clothing — but  as  a  body  of  people,  as  human 
beings,  they  are  not  being  rightly  dealt  with. 
^Treaties  have  been  made  that  were  not 
kept  entirely  sacred  and  promises  have  been 
made  that  are  not  yet  fulfilled,  but  worst 
of  all  a  system  of  management  has  been  set 
up  which  makes  an  autocracy  possible,  be 
neath  which  many  Indians  lose  all  personal 

-See  Note  I,  p.  33. 


32  THE    FUTURE    INDIAN. 

liberty  and  become  more  degraded  than  the 
southern  slaves  ever  were — a  condition 
entirely  out  of  place  in  a  country  which  be 
lieves  that  all  men  possess  certain  rights 
which  God  has  given  them — chief  of  which 
is  happiness  and  manhood — and  that  no 
man  shall  be  deprived  of  those  rights.*  Let 
us  begin  now  to  deal  with  the  Sioux  in  a 
more  consistent,  honest  manner.  Tell  them 
of  the  true  Messiah,  not  as  we  have — the 
Church  sending  out  a  few  missionaries,  and 
the  State  throwing  around  them  obstacles 
that  would  dishearten  the  angels  themselves. 
Give  them  your  whole  religion.  Give  them 
your  civilization  with  its  inspiration  for  the 
sublime  and  noble.  Give  them  your  love, 
your  sympathy  and  your  strength.  Throw 
about  them  the  influences  that  shape  out  the 
perfect  human  life — that  make  the  true 
man.  Do  this,  and  it  will  not  be  necessary 
to  place  them  under  i '  military  control "  or 
any  other  sort  of  "  control,"  in  order  to 
solve  the  "  vexatious  Indian  problem,"  for 

*See  Note  II,  p.  36. 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN.  33 

the  problem  will  then  find  its  only  solu 
tion. 

And  what  is  best  for  the  Sioux  Indians 
is  applicable  to  all  the  others. 

NOTE  I. 

*  *  *  Let  the  Indian  himself  give  a  fairly  good  succession 
of  reasons  for  the  present  discontent  among  the  Sioux. 
American  Horse  is  doing  the  talking,  and  he  is  directly  ad 
dressing  Indian  Agent  Royer  at  Pine  Ridge.  It  happened 
three  weeks  ago. 

"  I  think,"  said  American  Horse,  "  the  late  Sioux  commis 
sioners  (General  Crook,  Major  Warner  and  Governor  Foster), 
had  something  to  do  with  starting  this  trouble.  I  was 
speaker  for  the  whole  tribe.  In  a  general  council  I  signed 
the  bill  (the  late  Sioux  bill),  and  580  signed  with  me;  the 
other  members  of  the  band  drew  out  and  it  divided  us,  and 
ever  since  these  two  parties  have  been  divided.  The  non- 
progressive  started  the  ghost  dance  to  draw  from  us. 

"We  were  made  many  promises,  but  have  never  heard 
from  them  since.  The  Great  Father  says  if  we  do  what  he 
directs,  it  will  be  to  our  benefit,  but  instead  of  this  thev  are 
every  year  cutting  down  our  rations,  and  we  do  not  get 
enough  to  keep  us  from  suffering.  General  Crook  talked 
nice  to  us,  and  after  we  signed  the  bill  they  took  our  land 
and  cut  down  our  allowance  of  food. 

"  The  commisssion  made  us  believe  that  we  would  get  full 
sacks  if  we  signed  the  bill,  but  instead  of  that  our  sacks  are 
empty.  We  lost  considerable  property  by  being  here  with 
the  commissioners  last  year  and  have  never  got  anything  for 
it.  Our  chickens  were  all  stolen,  our  cattle  some  of  them 
were  kilted.  Our  crops  were  entirely  lost  by  us  being  ab 
sent  here  with  the  Sioux  commission,  and  we  have  never  been 
benefited  one  bit  by  the  bill,  and,  in  fact,  we  are  worse  off 

3 


34  THE  FUTURE  INDIAN. 


than  we  were  before  we  signed  the  bill. 

"  We  are  told  if  we  do  as  the  white  men  we  will  be  better 
off,  but  we  are  getting  worse  off  every  year. 

"The  commissioners  promised  the  Indians  living  on 
Black  Pipe  and  Pass  creeks  that  if  they  signed  the  bill  they 
could  remain  where  they  were  and  draw  their  rations  at  this 
agency,  showing  them  on  the  map  the  line,  and  our  people 
want  them  here,  but  they  have  been  ordered  to  move  back 
to  Rosebud  agency.  This  is  one  of  the  broken  promises. 
The  commission  proposed  to  survey  the  boundary  line  and 
appropriate  81,000  for  the  purpose,  but  it  has  not  been  done. 
When  we  were  at  Washington  the  President,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  and  the  commissioner  all  promised  us  that  we 
would  get  the  1,000,000  pounds  of  beef  that  was  taken  from 
us,  and  I  heard  the  bill  appropriating  the  money  passed 
Congress,  but  we  never  got  the  beef.  The  commissioner  re 
fused  to  give  it  to  us.  American  Horse,  Fast  Thunder  and 
Spotted  Horse  were  all  promised  a  spring  wagon  each,  but 
they  have  never  heard  anything  of  it.  This  is  another 
broken  promise." 

The  treaty  negotiated  by  that  commission  opened  to  set 
tlement  9,000,000  acres  of  land.  Much  of  that  great  tract  has 
been  surveyed  and  a  great  deal  of  it  is  now  held  by  white 
settlers,  although  the  Indians  have  not  received  one  cent  of 
the  money  promised  them.  FOR  THIS  CONGRESS  ONLY  CAN  BE 

HELD  RESPONSIBLE,  FOR  THE  REPORT  OF  THE  SlOUX  COMMISSION 
WAS  APPROVED  BY  THE  PRESIDENT  AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE 

INTERIOR  on  January  30,  this  year  [18901.  The  commission 
had  a  task  of  extraordinary  difficulty.  Usually,  it  takes 
two  or  more  parties  to  make  an  agreement,  but  in  this  mat 
ter  Congress  decided  that  it  knew  what  the  Indian  wanted 
and  ought  to  have  better  than  the  Indian  did  himself.  So 
the  terms  of  the  agreement  were  fixed  by  law  before  the 
opinion  of  an  Indian  was  asked,  and  when  the  Sioux  sug 
gested  amendments  to  the  commission  that  body  found 
itself  peculiarly  situated.  Three  things  not  in  the  congres 
sional  mandatory  agreement  were  promised  by  the  commis- 


THE    FUTURE    INDIAN.  35 

sion.  One  was  that  the  Crow  Creek  Sioux  should  be  given 
$187,000  because  their  reservation  was  diminished  more  ma 
terially  than  the  sections  sacred  to  other  bands;  another 
was  that  8100,000  should  be  applied  to  the  purchase  of  beef 
in  lieu  of  the  aching  void  caused  by  small  appropriations  for 
the  present  fiscal  year ;  and  the  third  promise  was  that  $200,- 
000  should  be  paid  to  Standing  Rock  and  Cheyenne  River 
Indians,  whose  ponies  had  been  taken  from  them  by  officers 
of  the  United  States  army.  Thanks  to  Senator  Dawes,  Chair 
man  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Indian  Affairs,  a  bill  em 
bodying  all  those  promises  was  passed  by  the  Senate  last 
session.  At  last  the  House  has  passed  it,  but  before  doing  so 
it  cut  out  the  1187,000  for  the  Crow  Creek  braves.  This 
amount  will  probably  be  put  on  when  the  bill  gets  back  to 
the  Senate,  and  then  the  struggle  will  be  renewed  in  con 
ference.—  Washington  Star,  December,  1890. 

[When  the  Sioux  have  a  legislative  body 
of  their  own,  composed  of  competent  white 
persons  and  Indians,  acting  conjointly  with 
the  head  of  the  Administration — with  no 
Congress  between  whose  grind  is  slower 
than  that  of  the  legendary  mills  of  the 
gods — they  will  make  better  progress  in  the 
future  than  they  have  in  the  past.] 


36  THE   FUTURE  INDIAN. 


NOTE  II. 

*  *  One  among  their  [the  Sioux]  grievances  was  that  the 
commission  which  came  here  one  year  ago  last  spring  had 
promised  to  each  individual  in  the  tribe  850,  and  that  the 
promise  was  not  fulfilled.  Another,  that  no  discrimination 
was  used  in  the  issuing  of  clothing.  One  woman  who  had  no 
husband  and  no  man  in  the  family  told  me  that  they  had 
issued  to  her  for  her  share  a  man's  suit  of  clothes,  and  she 
said  she  did  not  know  what  on  earth  to  do  with  them.  They 
also  issued  a  boy's  suit  of  clothes  to  a  little  girl.  *  *  There 
are  about  five  Government  farmers  on  the  reserve,  each  re" 
ceiving  875  a  month  for  teaching  the  Indians  to  farm  (?). 
One  can  judge  quite  well  of  their  qualifications  for  farming 
when  one  knows  that  a  clerk  who  had  never  farmed  in  his 
life  was  given  the  position  of  farmer.  Of  course  there  are 
exceptions  to  every  rule,  and  now  and  then  the  Indians  may 
have  had  (I  had  almost  said  "issued"  to  them)  a  "  good 
farmer."  Having  been  brought  up  on  a  reserve,  and  having 
borne  the  infliction  of  having  farmers  issued  to  us,  who  were 
paid  out  of  our  tribal  money,  said  farmers  not  even  lifting  a 
hand  to  teach  an  Indian  to  farm,  I  give  my  unqualified 
opinion  that  the  Government  farmer  is  utterly  useless  to  the 
Indians,  especially  on  a  reservation  like  this,  where  the  soil 
is  sandy  and  more  fit  for  grazing  purposes  than  for  farming. 
It  seems  that  the  farmers  here,  in  addition  to  their  utter  use- 
lessness  as  teachers  of  farming  to  the  Indians,  HAD  ALMOST 

AUTOCRATIC  RULE  IN  THE  LOCALITIES  THEY  WERE  APPOINTED  TO 

in  this  respect;  that  if  any  man  did  not  please  them  or  do 
lust  as  they  wanted  them  to  do,  they  had  the  power,  or  cer 
tainly  exercised  the  power,  of  taking  away  from  him  the 
farming  implements  or  farming  machinery  which  had  been 
issued  to  them,  and  giving  it  to  some  one  else  who  pleased 
them  better.— Extract  from  a  Special  to  the  Chicago  Herald 
from  the  Pine  Ridge  Agency,  written  during  the  Indian  trouble. 


THE    PROFFEK    OF   A   GENUINE    CIVIL 
IZATION  WANTED. 

IT  IS  a  singular  fact,  and  one  which  does 
credit  to  human  nature,  that  the  old 
Indians  are  always  just  and  generous. 
He  who  fights  the  Indian  must  needs  re 
spect  his  magnificent  courage  and  contempt 
of  death.  Those  who  meet  him  in  council 
are  compelled  to  respect  his  dignity  and  sa 
gacity.  My  personal  experience  with  In 
dians  has  covered  a  period  of  seven  years. 
Three  years  were  spent  in  teaching  and 
studying  Indians  at  Hampton,  Va. ;  three 
years  more  in  organizing  a  day  school  and 
doing  missionary  work  in  an  Indian  camp 
on  the  Missouri  river,  with  intervals  of 
travel  over  the  reservations  in  the  company 
of  Indians,  and  the  last  year  has  been  de 
voted  to  the  official  inspection  and  superin 
tendence  of  all  the  Government  school  work 


38  THE  FUTURE  INDIAN. 

among  the  Sioux.  I  learned  the  Dakota 
language  four  years  ago  and  have  found  it 
invaluable  in  the  work. 

The  present  crisis  in  Indian  history  is 
certainly  unexpected  to  most  of  us.  We 
who  have  been  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  Sioux  for  the  past  few  years  have  felt  (I 
can  at  least  say  for  myself  that  I  have  felt) 
strongly  two  conflicting  currents  of  feeling. 
There  has  been  a  growing  eagerness  for  the 
highest  good  our  civilization  has  to  offer — a 
desire  for  the  best  education  as  the  purest 
teaching  of  Christianity.  Indians  have 
learned  to  recognize  the  power  of  a  self- 
sacrificing  love  when  it  appeared  to  them 
in  the  person  of  a  woman  or  a  man  of  the 
hitherto  hated  and  suspected  white  race, 
and  such  men  and  women,  usually  mission-- 
aries,  have  gained  their  respect  and  loyalty. 
But  there  has  been  a  powerful  undercurrent 
of  discontent,  sadness  and  bitterness  and  a 
taste  of  despair.  Civilization  has  not  been  to 
the  people  what  it  promised  to  be.  The  food 
it  brought  was  usually  vapid  and  immaterial. 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN.  39 

The  misery  was  real  and  present,  while  the 
noble  and  devoted  white  man  was  a  rarity. 
The  low-minded,  sensual,  greedy,  over-rul 
ing  and  utterly  selfish  white  man  was  too 
frequently  placed  over  them  as  a  teacher, 
farmer  or  agent.  Most  unwillingly  they 
relinquished  a  third  of  their  domain  and 
saw  none  of  the  promised  benefits.  Labor 
was  robbed  of  its  reward  by  an  unrelenting 
climate  and  an  ungenerous  soil.  Hunger 
was  pressing  and  sickness  universal,  and 
death  became  a  familiar  guest  in  almost 
every  house.  Especially  was  the  mortality 
among  little  children  sad  and  fearful,  and 
it  is  noticeable  that  in  the  songs  and  cere 
monies  of  the  ghost  dance  much  mention  is 
made  of  this  universal  bereavement.  Then, 
by  continual  brooding  over  the  old,  free, 
healthy  animal  life,  a  sort  of  revival  of  old 
customs,  culminating  in  the  passionate,  pa 
thetic  story  of  the  new  Messiah,  a  savior, 
has  come  to  the  Indian. 

How  actual  warfare  was   brought  about 
was  another  question,  and  upon  which  there 


40  THE  FUTURE    INDIAN. 

must  have  been  much  difference  of  opinion. 
My  personal  conviction  is  that  there  was  no 
deliberate  intention  to  destroy  the  whites ; 
that  the  Indians  are  standing  in  the  atti 
tude  of  self-defense,  fighting  only  as  they 
conceive  themselves  to  be  brought  to  bay. 

One  of  the  most  striking  scenes  to  be 
witnessed  to-day  at  Pine  Ridge,  and  one 
which  appeals  to  our  heart  in  behalf  of  the 
Indian  race,  can  be  seen  by  any  one  who 
enters  the  doors  of  the  Episcopal  Church, 
for  eleven  days  a  hospital  for  the  wounded  In 
dian  prisoners.  The  picture  of  these  helpless 
men,women,  girls  and  even  infants  stretched 
on  couches  of  loose  hay  covered  with  quilts, 
on  both  sides  of  the  narrow  aisle,  the  fes 
toons  of  Christmas  cedars  hanging  over 
head,  the  altar  covered  with  sheets  and  piled 
with  extra  clothing,  the  lectern  used  as  a 
side-table,  the  stained  glass-window  shed 
ding  a  soft  glory  on  the  sad  scene — all  this 
is  strange  and  touching.  Rev.  C.  S.  Cook, 
missionary  at  the  Pine  Ridge  agency,  him 
self  of  Indian  blood,  opened  the  church 


THE  FUTURE  INDIAN.  41 

doors  to  the  miserable  captives,  and  has  or 
ganized  and  inspired  the  work  of  mercy. 
The  young  Indian  men  and  women  of  the 
church,  although  they  have  suffered  much  at 
the  hands  of  the  fanatic  ghost  dancers,  have 
not  spared  themselves  in  night  watching  or 
day  nursing,  performing  the  most  menial 
offices  for  the  wounded  with  unfailing  pa 
tience  and  tenderness.  Even  the  roughest  of 
our  young  men  may  be  seen  to  handle  a 
dying  girl  with  all  the  delicacy  of  a  woman 
and  the  deft  ness  of  a  trained  nurse.  No  pain 
ful  sights,  no  heartrending  sounds  of  agony, 
no  sickening  odors  avail  to  deter  them  from 
their  self-imposed  task.  Military  surgeons 
assist  the  volunteer  service  of  the  agency. 
Physicians,  also  of  Indian  blood,  dress  the 
wounds  of  patients,  and  it  is  natural  that 
the  sympathetic  ministration  of  one  of  their 
own  race  should  be  most  welcome. 

I  helped  to  bring  the  prisoners  into  the 
church  on  the  night  of  the  battle,  and  it  was 
an  experience  that  can  never  be  forgotten. 
One  young  woman,  perhaps  twenty  years  of 


42  THE  FUTURE  INDIAN. 

age,  in  whom  we  have  all  been  peculiarly 
interested,  was  literally  torn  to  pieces  by 
the  bullets;  breast,  shoulder,  hip,  arm  and 
leg  were  all  injured.  We  thought  her 
dying,  but  she  still  lives,  a  marvel  of  pluck 
and  endurance.  When  she  was  brought  in 
she  still  wore  the  sacred  white  robe  of  the 
ghost  dancers,  pitted  in  several  places  and 
bedaubed  with  her  blood.  Blood-stained 
feathers  clung  to  her  matted  hair,  and  the 
ghastly  face,  with  its  clear-cut  Roman  fea 
tures,  was  smeared  with  paint.  As  the  doc 
tor  bent  over  her  and  began  to  cut  away  the 
dress,  she  opened  her  eyes  and  said:  u  Yes, 
take  it  off,  the  sacred  robe  ;  it  is  a  worthless 
thing.  They  told  me  it  would  keep  off  the 
bullets  of  the  white  men." 

The  endurance  of  the  Indian  is  wonder 
ful.  Survivors  of  the  terrible  affair  at 
Wounded  Knee  are  even  now  crawling  into 
the  agency  after  an  exposure  of  eleven  days 
to  the  elements,  without  shelter,  food  or 
clothing,  and  wounded  at  that.  Two  women 
came  in  late  last  night.  Seven  started  to- 


THE    FUTURE  INDIAN.  43 

gether,  and  five  of  them  are  scattered  along 
the  road,  having  succumbed  to  the  strain. 
The  mrind  refuses  to  conceive  the  horrors  of 
this  prolonged  journey. 

Whatever  may  be  the  extent  of  this  dis 
turbance  in  the  Northwest,  we  must  hope 
it  will  finally  result  in  some  good  to  the 
poor  Indians — in  a  better  comprehension 
of  his  character  and  sufferings,  and  in  the 
proffer  of  a  genuine  civilization. 

ELAINE  GGODALE,  in  the  N.  Y.  World. 

[Repnblished  in  this  city  by  the  Indianapolis  News.] 

The  above  was  written  shortly  after  the  battle 
at  Wounded  Knee,  South  Dakota,  a  few  miles 
from  the  Pine  Kidge  agency.  This  terrible  af 
fair  occurred  on  December  29,  1890.  On  the  day 
before,  Big  Foot,  a  Sioux  chief,  had  surrendered 
with  his  whole  band  to  the  Government  troops, 
but  when  an  attempt  was  made  to  disarm  the  In 
dians,  they  turned  suddenly  upon  the  soldiers, 
and  in  the  fight  that  followed  nearly  the  entire 
band  perished,  women  and  children  going  down, 
while  the  government  forces  sustained  a  bad  loss, 
Captain  Wallace,  of  troop  K,  being  among 
the  victims. 


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